NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory: Fall Earth Eclipse Season Starts

Twice a year, around March and around September, I get to see Earth moving in between my telescopes and the Sun. Everyday for the next three weeks Earth will eclipse the Sun.

The eclipses are fairly short near the beginning and end of the season but ramp up to 72 minutes in the middle.

Any spacecraft observing the Sun from an orbit around Earth has to contend with such eclipses, but my orbit is designed to minimize them as much as possible, as they block observations of the Sun.

In the video one can see how the boundaries of the shadow of Earth on the Sun are not perfectly sharp since my telescopes can see some light from the brighter parts of the Sun coming through Earth's atmosphere.